iPad Tips and Tricks

Here are some great tips for iPad as well as laptops, Nooks, Kindles and other portable devices too.

1. If you are not online, set to airport mode. You can do this from settings menu. On iPad it is the very first setting choice in your settings menu.

2. Adjust screen brightness down; you can find this under Settings/Brightness and Wallpaper on your iPad.

3. Do not leave your device in a hot car or storage area; heat will run batteries down quickly! Never leave in direct sunlight.

4. WiFi uses less battery power then 3G, so be sure your iPad is set to pick up WiFi when available.

5. Auto-lock settings vary from 2 minutes to NEVER, so NEVER chose NEVER and always choose 2 minute auto-lock. You can find this setting in Settings/General/Auto-lock (shuts screen down). Better yet, turn it off yourself as soon as you are done and make it a habit (press your awake/sleep button found at the top of your iPad).

6. If there are updates available for your device, be sure to get them. Many updates/upgrades will optimize battery life.

7. Turn off Push Notifications by going to Settings and turn off Notifications. When you open an app, it will let you know if there is an update.

8. Turn off Location Services, or turn off those you don’t use much. This can be found in Settings, Location Services.

9. Always charge to 100% and about once a month, let the battery drain completely, then recharge.

9 thoughts on “iPad Tips and Tricks”

its good that apple has very quickly brought in the new ipad 2 after the almost failed iPad 1, which had many issues like overheating, incapable of reading in sunlight, and many other issues. Apple claims that they have solved such issues, but what i have seen is that they have not been able to address the over heating problem which i am having while using it……

Hello I have been thinking for sometime now whether to get an Applemac laptop, an Ipad2, or wait for the next Windows8 on a Toshiba laptop. At present I have a desktop with Windows7 Ultimate. I am completely happy with my Window7 OS and it’s6gigs of memory and sometimes find the acid comments of the anti-Windows brigade amazing. Would I be better to wait for Windows 8 to arrive and install that OS on a laptop, or is Apple really better? regards Ken

Ken Davis:
I am a recent convert to Mac as their OS X is such a slick & smooth operating system, and really is as robust as the fanatics keep raving about.
Apple’s build quality is vastly superior to anything I’ve ever seen in a PC, whether that be desktop or laptop or tablet (not that one would ever buy an off-the-shelf desktop system, unless, of course, it were a Mac Pro). I can say this with certainty because: a) I have, and have been through, a lot of hardware due to my industry; b) I’m extremely fussy (or, obsessive) about the out-of-the-box condition, the build quality as well as the longevity of both the aesthetic and hardware components.
Lastly, consider this: a Mac will run ANY operating system (either by way of virtualization or by multi-booting) out there, flawlessly. By comparison, a Windows-based PC has one glaring omission from the list above – Apple OS X (meaning you’ll miss out on undoubtedly some of the best software on the market today).
I hope this helps in your decision.

Whether the iPad could replace a notebook depends on what you use a computer for. If you use it only to browse the Web, email, social networking, videos and music then an iPad might be a good choice. If you do word processing, spread sheets, graphics work, database work, or a lot of multitasking, then an iPad would not be a good choice. Also keep in mind for the price of an iPad you could but a really powerful laptop with a very large hard drive and lots of RAM. iPads generally are not meant to replace notebooks or desktops.

You’ve been a great help for senior citizens like me to overcome fear of learning to use computers. As an avid reader, I’m now interested in getting an e-reader to save on bookshelf space, but not as a replacement for my computer. Do you have any advice about purchasing easy-to-operate e-readers?

We have nooks (Barnes & Noble) – but I’m sure Amazon’s Kindle is equally as good. nook has the advantage of allowing different e-book formats (other than PDF) so you can find more free books and you’re not so restricted in your choices. But both nook and Kindle are excellent.